8 weeks after 8th treatment

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Should I go back for ANOTHER treatment or cancel?
Been using the gentlease.

Here’s what it used to look like:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/zzz/1.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/zzz/2-1.jpg

here’s now:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/zzz/IMG_0481.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/zzz/IMG_0483.jpg

Also - what should I do with my shoulder hair - too thin to keep getting treatment?
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/zzz/IMG_0512.jpg

thanks

I feel like it’s not going anywhere after a year of treatments and am pretty shattered.

#2

Can you please find out what settings were being used on you with GentleLASE? Please find out the spot size and joules. It looks like you might have been a bit undertreated. Also, it looks like the coarse hair is gone, but the finer hair was slightly stimulated, which is usually a result of low settings. If you get any more treatments, please wait 12 weeks between them to let the hair get more coarse.

How was shedding usually 3 weeks after each treatment?

Shoulder hair is definitely too thin for laser. You need electrolysis there, only.

#3

It all shed pretty much 2/3 weeks after the treatment.
Not sure on the settings. I think maybe 16 joules?
What settings would you recommend for the hair now and is it “treatable”

#4

LAGirl, please can you explain why you think it looks like the area was undertreated?

#5

If you’re being undertreated, the settings can be high enough to make the hair shed, but not high enough to disable the hair permanently. That’s why we recommend to use settings that are as high as your skin can handle safely.

Can you find out if it was 16joules for sure and what the spot size used was? 16J on 18mm spot size is a good setting, but on a 15mm spot size it’s low.

#6

Ok
so it’s been months since my last treatment and here’s what it looks like

[http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/IMG_1240.jpg](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/IMG_1240.jpg)  [http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/IMG_1232.jpg](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/IMG_1232.jpg)

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/rough_diamonds/IMG_1231.jpg

Obviously that is not good enough for 8 treatments.

What do you think I should do…go back to the same place and ask for a discounted price (usually 299$) and with the settings as stated in the previous post or find a new place (might be hard to get same laser equipment though)

Do you think a couple of sessions with GOOD settings would make a big difference?

#7

Only the hair in the middle of your chest is coarse enough. I would switch to electrolysis on the rest.

Your hair is MUCH more sparse and a lot of it is gone altogether if you compare to the original photos. You’ve just gotten to the point where the remaining hair is too fine to be affected by laser.

#8

A couple sessions COULD maaaaybe help, and to be honest you look like you could probably go higher than 16J without a problem (just a guess because you look somewhat pale, I’m no expert). It’s a really large area, and normally I wouldn’t say this, but electrolysis might be a safer bet if you responded this poorly to laser.

You never mentioned what the spot size was…

EDIT: LAgirl beat me to the electrolysis suggestion. It’s slower, but at this point it would have been cheaper and at least it’s a sure thing.

#9

Electrolysis sounds daunting on such a big area but if its what you recommend…

I looked up a clinic and it said 45 mins $80 and they remove 40 follicles in 15 minutes.

What kind of time length do you think i’d be looking at?

thanks a lot

#10

Where do you live? That is expensive, you could find brilliant electrologists for much less than that, I’m sure. I live in Orange County and work with a super fast lady who does training courses, runs an electrology school, and works with the best equipment you can get, and it’s still only $75 per full hour. But the removal rate (if accurate) sounds really good. It’s hard to trust that though because the speed of the electrologist depends on the direction of hair growth, the follicle shape, and so many other factors. 40 follicles per 15 minutes seems quite specific.

Will they give you a discount for large blocks of time maybe? It IS daunting for large areas, and many people just give up at this stage. But only you can decide if it’s something you’d like to do.

EDIT: I don’t mean to imply those prices are rip-offs, by the way. I’ve heard of prices like that before. I just think you may be able to find someone who is equally skilled for less if you look.

#11

How long of a session would electrolysis take to remove say around 80% of hair on my chest/stomach?

2 hours?

#12

Electrolysis would provide an instant reduction in the number of hairs visible. A practitioner of good speed and technique would be able to meet your needs in a reasonable amount of time and money. One would need only one to three clearances to have a stable year around reductions via electrolysis. For an 80% reduction, you may need to get as many as 6 full clearances.

This example shows well how we keep telling people that dollars per hour doesn’t tell one anything. At 40 hairs every 15 minutes, one would get 160 hairs per hour and at $80 per hour, we assume that they charge $106.66 per hour, or sixty-eight cents per hair. A person visiting me pays an average of plus or minus fifteen cents per hair. That means that the difference between this practice, and the work that I do would be a difference of about fifty-three or fifty-four cents per hair (maybe more)

This is why one needs to get sample treatments from as any sources as possible before settling in with a practitioner.

#13

There are various types of electrolysis. You should look for someone who uses thermolysis type, which is fastest. It removes 5-10 hairs per minute. Apilus machines are some of the best if you can find someone using one. On average, electrolysis costs around $70 per hour, but it depends on a lot of things and location.

Either way, skill is very important to get good results as with anything. You need to sample 3-4 electrologists and see how things go. You need to make sure you don’t feel the hair being plucked.

I would recommend starting a thread on the electrolysis section of the forum if you decide to go for it.

Also, keep in mind that you will still need about 12 months worth of treatments to go through all the hair cycles. It’s important to get longer more frequent treatments in the beginning to get a clearance and then keep up with that.

#14

There aren’t much before and after pics of laser treatments on the net, and seeing this and another thread with pics, I have to say that I’m very disappointed with the “reduction” results to expect from laser. Is this the typical/on average result of laser hair reduction?

#15

There are lots of photos around on this site. They’re hard to find though. Plus, most people don’t take before pictures. I have a photo of my underarm up, but don’t have a before photo. All I can tell you is that I started with very coarse dense growth that I couldn’t even shave without irritation and a shadow, and ended up with 95%+ removal in 5 treatments.

Results depend on many things. If you get GOOD treatments, ALL COURSE hair will be gone. This person’s hair was average on coarseness and he didn’t get the best treatments with the best machine at the best settings.

#16

Yep, definitely depends on treatments and your hair type. The hair on my legs is already so much better after only two real treatments. It’s too early to tell permanency, but I have high hopes.